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Barcelona play the first friendly of their training camp in England today, taking on Birmingham City at St Andrew's. The test will see Germany's Karim Adeyemi make his debut in the Catalan side's shirt.
One of the historic clubs of English football, Birmingham City currently play in the English Championship.
According to the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, Adeyemi, Barcelona's second signing of the 2026-2027 project, will feature in one of the two line-ups Hansi Flick has prepared for the match.
The German arrives just one week after starting training with the team. Presented on 23 July, he took his first session on the pitch at the sports city on the 24th, following several days in the gym and four more days of work at St George's Park.
Flick reckons that spell is enough for Adeyemi to begin adapting to the Catalan style, with the official season kicking off on 23 August against Elche.
Birmingham City will be Barcelona's second friendly of the preparation period, coming after the 4-1 win over Europa.
Thirty players made the England camp squad, among them a large number of Barcelona Atlètic youngsters, pending the return of the Spain internationals crowned World Cup champions on 10 August.
Marc-André ter Stegen will not take part. He leaves the camp today to complete his loan move to Ajax.
Flick will rely solely on the available players. Raphinha misses out having returned from his holiday just two days ago, as does Frenkie de Jong, who continues to recover from a tear of the medial collateral ligament of his right knee sustained during the World Cup.
Alejandro Baldé is another absentee. He has returned to group training after recovering from a minor back problem, but the technical staff will not risk playing him.
Fermín López misses out too, continuing his physical conditioning programme after suffering a fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone of his right foot. He hopes to return during the Joan Gamper Trophy on 19 August.
Ronald Araújo, by contrast, will be present after recovering from the calf muscle problems that kept him out of the World Cup with Uruguay.
A test for the young talents
This friendly gives some players the chance to prove they can hold down a place in the first team.
Flick will see how far Jofre Torrents can go at full-back, and whether Espart has enough to deputise for Jules Koundé or cover for the absent Frenkie de Jong, alongside Bryan Fariñas.
Barcelona's other academy players will also come under the microscope. Flick wants to know whether Egyptian forward Hamza Abdelkarim, admired by the sporting management, is a good attacking option, with his physical strength and knack for goals among the other draws of the match.
Experienced first-team players will get the German's attention too: Andreas Christensen, Marc Bernal, who returns after missing the first match, Marc Casadó, and Gerard Martín.
The goalkeeping position remains intriguing as well. Jaco and Iker Rodríguez are battling to nail down the third-choice spot following ter Stegen's departure.